Gigi Hadid’s secret health battle

GIGI Hadid has opened up about her private health battle, after slamming critics on Twitter for calling her "too skinny" at New York Fashion Week.

Hadid revealed that she has been diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease, and that it had reshaped her body.

"I've loved my body when I was just diagnosed and I loved [it] going through it and I love my body now," the 22-year-old model to E! News backstage at the Anna Sui show. "It's just about everyone accepting their body as it matures and knowing that it's not always going to look the same and you can love yourself in all different sizes."

Hadid added that she's speaking about her battle with the auto-immune disease because "a lot of people can connect with it."

Hashimoto's Disease affects the thyroid gland.

In a series of tweets, Hadid said she would "not further explain" her weight after several people commented about her skinny frame at fashion week.

For those of you so determined to come up w why my body has changed over the years, you may not know that when I started @ 17 I was not yet diagnosed w/Hashimoto’s disease; those of u who called me “too big for the industry” were seeing inflammation & water retention due to that.

She also said she prefers not to use drugs, but underwent a holistic medical trial to help balance her thyroid levels.

She added, "I will not further explain the way my body looks, just as anyone, with a body type that doesn't suit your 'beauty' expectation, shouldn't have to. Not to judge others, but drugs are not my thing, stop putting me in that box just because you don't understand the way my body has matured."

Hadid concluded by asking social media users to empathise with people before criticising them. She said the public should use energy to "lift those that you admire."

This story originally appeared in Fox News and is republished here with permission.